u.s. mint director. do you have any -- any feeling, any sort of inside feeling, if you like, about what's going on over there? >> yeah, you know, i've been there before, and can i say that all the parties truly wanted to come to some type of resolution, but they have kicked the can down the road so many times it's all the solutions that are left are extremely difficult ones with huge political and economic negative consequences, so from my perspective they are having so much difficulty trying to come to agreement. i'm shaving a little bit off of this year's deficit. we're going to have fiscal problems for as far as the eye can see, an here's where an investor, a smart investor is going to want to diversify, especially into things like tangible assets like gold. >> you're going to make the case for gold here, which, you know, has had a heck of a run for the last decade or so, but it has started to show signs of wear and tear. what would propel gold from here necessarily? >> well, two things that i would have your viewers take a look at. the first is the reason why gold has kind of f